The operator of a California pipeline that spilled crude oil and polluted beaches south of Los Angeles in early October has been charged with “Negligence” by a federal prosecutor, Wednesday, December 15.
These criminal proceedings target Amplify Energy, a Texan company operating this pipeline located off Huntington Beach, and two of its subsidiaries (Beta Operating Co. and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co.), according to the prosecutor’s statement.
The authorities reproach them in particular for not having reacted correctly to the triggering of alarms alerting to an oil leak, which had sounded eight times in the space of thirteen hours. Despite these alarms, they repeatedly restarted the installation, when they should not have, said the statement.
“The pipeline, which was used to bring crude oil from various platforms to a processing plant in Long Beach, started to leak in the afternoon of the 1er October. But the defendants continued to operate the damaged pipeline, intermittently, until the next morning ”, write the prosecutor’s office.
95,000 liters of crude oil in the ocean
Consequence of this “Careless behavior”, about 95,000 liters of crude oil escaped off Huntington Beach in federal waters, they add.
In addition, the company’s employees had not received adequate training to use the leak detection system and “The workforce was insufficient and tired”.
Amplify Energy responded on Wednesday evening, saying its staff reacted quickly but believed in a “False alarm” due to a malfunction of the detection system. “Amplify Energy and its employees are committed to ensuring the safety of their operations in order to maintain the safety of people, the environment and the communities in which they operate at all times.”, the company wrote in a statement.
As legal persons, the companies prosecuted face a five-year probation sentence and several million dollars in fines, said the prosecutor.
The oil spill caused by the oil pipeline had affected 24 km of coastline between Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach, famous beaches south of Los Angeles known as much for their surfers as for their dolphins.
The anchor of a vessel involved
Underwater inspections revealed that a large segment of the pipeline had been displaced, and detected a tear of about three inches in the pipe. Investigators believe that this damage could have been caused by the anchor of a ship, probably one of the many cargo ships that sometimes wait days at sea before being able to dock in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, among the most active people in the world.
The October disaster reignited the debate over the presence of oil platforms just a few miles from the densely populated Southern California coast. A total of twenty-three oil and gas platforms are installed in federal waters in the region.
